They Wish They Were Us(80)

“What the hell,” Nikki mumbled. “What are they going to do to us?”

“Did Rachel tell you anything?” Shaila took the first sip from the bottle and turned to Graham, her eyes like saucers. It was the first time I had seen her scared like this, terrified of the unknown.

Graham shook his head, but he looked a little shaken. I remember his number. Five. He took a swig. “She only gave me one clue,” he said. “She just said, ‘We know your fears.’”

My stomach sank and I remembered the night I sat with Jake and Adam on Adam’s porch. What I had told them about me . . . about Shaila. How I couldn’t sleep without a night-light, how Shaila could never ride the Ferris wheel because it was so high off the ground.

Had we all betrayed each other at some point that year? We must have. There’s no way I was the only one. Not if they knew everyone here had something that terrified them. But no one said anything as we stewed in our own shame, slowly passing around the bottle. I turned away from the group and spotted Ocean Cliff off in the distance. Shaila saw it, too.

We stayed quiet, mulling over our fates, until the rest of the Players returned to read out what we had to do.

It was clear then that Adam, Jake, and the rest of the boys were running the show. The girls hung in the back, taking selfies and hyping up the whole event. They were never in charge. We never are. I know that now.

“You’ll each be given a personalized task,” Jake said. “Lower numbers, watch the fuck out. You’ll also be paired with a senior who will oversee your challenge, to make sure you complete it correctly.” The crowd behind him hollered their support. “Ready?”

Quentin’s was first: He had to watch two horror movies back to back since he was terrified of zombies. Tina would hang out with him while that all happened.

“Lame!” someone called out.

“Eat a turd, dipshit!” Jake countered. “Next up, Jill.”

I took a step forward from our lineup and held my head high.

“Afraid of the dark, are we?” Jake said.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“There’s a crawlspace in the basement,” he said, motioning to the main house behind me. “You’ll stay in there for four hours. Alone.” I sighed deeply. I could do that. I would pass. “I’ll be the one to come check on you periodically.”

My brain rattled as he read off the rest of the assignments, but it was only when he announced Shaila’s name that I snapped back to attention. “Ocean Cliff,” Jake said.

The group behind him gasped. Even Adam looked a little surprised.

“What about it?” Shaila asked, trying to keep her cool. She shifted her weight back and forth from one foot to the other.

“Jump,” Jake said. He smiled sweetly. “And swim back to shore.”

Rachel shook her head and Tina covered her mouth.

“That’s like a million feet above sea level,” Shaila said. Her voice trembled.

“So?” Jake countered. “Others have done it before.” No one questioned if this was true or not.

Shaila’s eyes hardened. “Fine.”

Adam stepped forward as if to appease her. “I’ll be there, too,” he said, his voice kinder now. “I’ll be monitoring yours.”

Shaila’s face softened and I felt my shoulders relax a little. I grabbed her hand and she squeezed it. She turned to me and her eyes were wide and scared. “Don’t let them see you hurt,” she whispered. I nodded and then she turned and trotted off behind Adam, toward Ocean Cliff jutting out over the shore. That was the last time I saw her alive.

Suddenly Jake appeared by my side. “Come on, Newman.” His voice was deep with no emotion.

He led me to Tina’s house, which was bright and airy, decorated with shades of white and gray and blue. “Here,” he said, motioning to a set of stairs behind a door in the kitchen. I followed him down into an unfinished basement that smelled like musk and mildew. I scrunched up my nose and tried to ignore the fear churning in my stomach. Jake walked to the back corner and opened a small doorway that only went up to his shoulders. “You might want to get on your knees,” he said. A menacing smile spread across his face. I did as he said and held my breath as I crawled into the dark space, feeling my way around the cold cement floor. The whole room was about as big as a full-size bed. Jake knelt down and tossed me a blanket and an unmarked glass bottle. “Provisions.”

“Thanks,” I whispered.

“I’ll be back soon,” he said. He shut the door and I heard the lock slide into place with a click.

I inhaled deeply, smelling plaster and glue. Then I spread the blanket around as best I could and lay down, trying to pretend like I was in my own bed at home, looking up at the plastic stars on my ceiling. At first, it was okay, just a little uncomfortable; I could barely sit up, the space was so small. But then I started to hear things, or at least I thought I did. Mice crawling through the walls. Banging from the floor above. It was all too much, too scary, too surreal. Then it became torturous, like the walls were caving in around me. My heart raced and my fingers trembled. I shuffled over to the door just to see if I could get it open. I shoved my shoulder against the entrance, but it stayed put, like something was pushed up against the door. That’s when I started to panic. My chest tightened and there was only one option, only one way to get through this all.